Bell Canada

With delays already having been heavily discussed, it's looking as though things might be getting a little bit brighter for the Samsung ATIV S in Canada. A snapshot of some internal documents has now turned up and reveal Bell Mobility has apparently set a release date of December 14th.

This follows the recent confrmation coming out of Austria where the device has been spotted on store shelves and ready for sale. Needless to say, we'll be following up with Bell retailers come December 14th to see if we can get our hands on one.

Is it possible that the entire country of Canada is doing away with Windows Phone? Doubtful. While that may be the case, we have gotten some news that Bell Canada has pulled its WP7 devices from its site. Furthermore, there have been some reports that Canadian carriers are not providing any firmware updates for first generation WP7 phones to enable Wifi tethering or other Mango features. Rogers, however, is still holding on with the Samsung Focus being available, albeit heavily discounted.

We're not ready to claim that the sky is falling quite yet, but Canadian carriers have been a little quiet as of late on Windows Phone. Perhaps Bell Canada is simply pulling their gen-1 phones to make way for the new Mango lot. After all, it was Microsoft Canada that had previously leaked the name of the Nokia "Sabre" in the terms and conditions one of their contests. In addition, three other phones were named in the same contest (Samsung Yukon, Samsung Wembley, Nokia SeaRay) suggesting they will be getting some new devices after all. However, there have been no official announcements about new WP devices headed to Bell Canada, or any other carrier, for that matter, leaving a lot of customers hanging.

Frankly, we're not sure what to make of this, so if any of our Canadian readers have anything to add, we would love to hear it.

I'm sure by now the Customer Reps for wireless carriers that offer Windows Phones are up to their eyeballs with online questions about the Mango update. While it's not definitive proof on when Mango will hit the update airwaves, such conversations can serve as indicators of what might happen.

This go around, it's Bell Canada's turn in the spotlight. The question was presented to a Bell Canada Customer Service Rep, "Will Bell be rolling out the Mango update on September 27th, like all the other major carriers?".

While the CSR politely replies that Bell doesn't have an announced date for the update, it probably will come out on September 27th.

So take it for what it is worth. Bell Canada (who offers the HTC HD7 and LG Optimus) may be joining the other carriers rumoured to be releasing Mango on the world next Tuesday, September 27th. Luckily, we won't have long to wait until we know for sure if all the online Customer Service Reps are right.